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Special Collections Research Center
William & Mary Special Collections Research CenterFinding Aid Authors: Joe Cantazaro, Special Collections Staff.
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W. L. Teter Papers, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary
Accessioned and minimally processed by Benjamin Bromley in January 2011. Additional processing by Joe Cantazaro, May 2011.
William L. (W. L.) Teter was an American inventor and entrepreneur of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Teter was born in Morgan County, Ohio on February 20, 1841 to Henry and Catherine Teter(s). He was the third of their five children. His siblings were named John H., born 1829, George W., born 1833, Philip, born 1846, and Catherine, born 1844. Henry Teter maintained a farm in Morgan County.
W. L. Teter married Parmelia Vaughn, also of Morgan County, on April 19, 1863. Their first child, Frank, was born the following year, and their daughter Pearl, was born in 1874. During the Civil War, Teter served in the Union Army as a Private in Company H of the 17th Ohio Infantry. A request for an "invalid pension" indicates Teter may have been wounded during the Civil War.
Soon after his military service, Teter moved his family to Rockbridge County, VA and settled in the town of Goshen. (Interestingly, a "William L. Teter" appears as an enlistee in McClanahan's Company of the Virginia Light Horse Artillery, also known as the Staunton Artillery of the Confederate Army.)
Teter's earliest inventions were to improve methods in the processing of grain. In 1874, he assigned US Patent Number 154,268 for an "Improvement in Millstone-Dress" to J. D. Mines of Moffett's Creek, VA. Teter's idea for an "invention ... whereby a mill-burr may be dressed so as to prepare the grain for flouring at the eye of the stone, and this save a large percentage of the power ordinarily required...as well as permit the mill to operate by twenty-five per cent less water" was handed over to Mines for implementation.
United States Patent 224,969 was awarded to Teter in 1880 for an improvement on a device used in the production of flour. His enhancement was to the "middlings purifier." The patent was for a special rotating bolt into which kernels of wheat are fed to remove the husk and in the construction of the purifier box whereby air is admitted to control the process at various points along the bolt.
In 1882, Teter was awarded United States Patent 262,505 for the "process of and apparatus for the cleaning of grain." The object of the invention was "to clean wheat and other grains by removing its outer or bran coating, thereby producing an article from which to make flour which shall retain its nitrogenous elements upon grinding it into a flour in the ordinary mill." In 1885, Edward H, Graham sued Teter unsuccessfully for patent infringement.
The focus of Teter's inventions shifted from agricultural improvements to the increased popular applications in the use of electricity and other emerging technologies of the period. He founded and invested in companies attempting to profit from the technological advances of the period.
In 1893, Teter was granted a patent, along with H. L. Webster, for "improvements relating to the generation of heat by the combustion of fuel and to apparatus thereof."
Teter invented an "electric water filter" and was awarded U. S. Patent No. 583,718 in 1897. His invention was for a device of "relatively inexpensive construction which will operate automatically in separating the contained foreign matter from water during the passage there through...destroy all germs and application of a current of electricity and thereby render the water absolutely pure." Three years later, he filed for a patent for improvement to this patent in collaboration with J. A. Heany. That same year he incorporated the Standard Electro Magnetic Power Co. to acquire electric, electromagnetic, and other patents to be used in the manufacture of dynamos.
In 1899, he co-founded, along with M. L. Ritter, O. W. Sellers and L.C. Stalnaker, and incorporated the Jeffries Automatic Air Brake Co. "to purchase and sell patents for air, water steam and railway appliances." His business interests called for him to move from to Philadelphia for a time to be closer to newfound business associates and opportunities.
As shown on an application for a veteran's widow pension, W. L. Teter died on October 28, 1911.
Further information about this individual or organization may be available in the Special Collections Research Center Wiki: .
Ledgers, letterbooks, diaries, and other material, 1878-1920s, related to W. L. Teter of Pennsylvania and Goshen, Virginia. Teter was an inventor and these volumes contain his expenses and sketches and descriptions of various inventions, as well as details about his personal life. Papers include stock certificates, clippings, genealogical notes, and other related material. There are also volumes, which include a book of drawings of W.L. Teter's patents, account books, copy books, and diaries.
Personal Papers of W. L. Teter (19 items).
Clipping, undated from unidentified publication, on "preparation for the work of teaching" attributed to the Pilgrim Teacher.
Newspaper clipping, undated from an unidentified newspaper titled "The Appetizing Bacon."
Voucher, undated and unattributed, for a government pension.
Notes, undated, relating to the genealogy of the Teter family. Notes contain records of births and marriages of Teter family members as well as a description of John H Teter who was shot through the right lung at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 20, 1863, lay wounded on the battlefield for six days before he was taken to a hospital. He died while dressing himself in preparation for leaving the hospital for home on December 3, 1863.
Certificate for 24,900 shares of stock in the Gas, Fuel Power & Light Company issued to W. L. Teter on April 28, 1891.
Certificate for 5,000 shares of stock in the Gas, Fuel Power & Light Company issued to W. L. Teter on September 24, 1891.
TD for a option to purchase shares in a company to be organized in support of a Patent Serial No. 441,013, filed July 23, 1892 for "improvements in Casting for Ammonia Kettles or Retorts with a compound of Graphite as aligning between the castings and all improvements pertaining to the same."
AM (circa 1896) of shareholders in the American Gas and Fuel Company and number of shares held by each.
Certificate for 500 shares of stock in the American Gas and Fuel Company issued to C. W. Wood on January 24, 1896 and signed by W. L. Teter.
Certificate for 1,000 shares of stock in American Gas Fuel Company issued to C. W. Wood on January 24, 1896 and signed by W. L. Teter.
ALS dated March 27, 1897 to W. L. Teter from B. F. Mulvey, Engineer of the Perseverance Worsted Company, Woonsocket, RI. The letter is a statement from Mulvey denying that Teter offered him a bribe of 250 shares of stock in American Gas Fuel Power Company to falsify a report as to the operation of a "system" in use by Perseverance Worsted.
Receipt, dated November 27, 1897, to I. L. Bender, Clerk of the County Court of Berkeley County, WV, for $1.25 from the United Hydro-Carbon Gas Fuel Company for the recording of a power of attorney.
Receipt, dated November 27, 1897, to Wm. M. O. Dawson, Secretary of the State of West Virginia for $2.50 from the L.C. Stalnaker, United Hydro-Carbon Gas Fuel Company for the recording of a power of attorney.
Certificate of incorporation issued by the State of West Virginia to the United Hydro-Carbon Gas Fuel Company, dated January 10, 1898.
Rental receipt, Goshen, VA Post Office Box No. 33 for the second quarter of 1908 by W. L. Teter
ALS dated July 12, 1908 to W. L. Teter from his niece Mrs. R. D. Hammarborg, Petaluma, Sonoma Co., CA. The letter was written to reestablish contact after a period of no correspondence.
Monthly Statement dated December 1, 1910 of the Goshen Supply Company of Goshen, VA for $3.04 of provisions. Marked paid by W. L. Teter, December 2, 1910.
Booklet of "The Seventh Annual Summer Commencement" of the University of Texas, dated August 30, 1924
Ninety-day promissory note dated June 7, 1902 for $250.00 to be paid by W. L. Teter to C. W. Wood at 10 per cent interest.
"Original drawings of Wm. L. Teter's Patents" (1 volume), containing approximately 70 original, annotated hand drawings, dated from 1887 to 1901. They relate to patents issued to or proposed inventions of W. L. Teter.
Cash accounts ledger, dated July 10, 1878 to December 28, 1882 (1 item). Folder 3 contains an unlabeled accounting ledger with accounts dating from July 10, 1878 to December 28, 1882. The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand.
"5 & 10¢ Store Book" (1 item). Folder 4 contains an accounting ledger labeled "5 & 10¢ Store Book" with accounts dated between September 20, 1882 to July 17, 1899. The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand.
"Book No. 2." Accounting ledger for the year 1890 (1 item). The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand
Account ledger, dated September 1, 1891 to December 31, 1901 (1 item), unlabeled, dated from September 1, 1891 to December 31, 1901. The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand.
Account ledger dated September 1, 1891 to July 31, 1902 (1 item), unlabeled. The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand.
Copying Book (1 item), tissue paper, with copies of 68 letters dated June 8, 1898 to July 20, 1900. The letters were penned by W. L. Teter, Roll Robinson, John Allen Heany and represent correspondence of the Teter-Heany Development Co. The letters are of day-to-day business of the Standard Light and Heat Co.
"Teter and Heany-1899." Ledger (1 item) for the Teter and Heany Development Co. dated May 2, 1899 to September 8, 1911. The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand.
Ledger dated July 20, 1899 to October 11, 1901 (1 item), unlabeled, July 1, 1899 to October 11, 1901. The ledger entries are in W. L. Teter's hand.
"Crown Standard Diary, 1902" (1 item). W. L. Teter's annotations in the diary are of a business and a personal nature and were made in Goshen, VA.
"Crown Standard Diary, 1903." W. L. Teter's annotations in the diary are of a business and a personal nature and were made in Philadelphia or Goshen, VA.
"Crown Standard Diary 1904" (1 item). W. L. Teter's annotations in the diary are of a business and a personal nature and were made in Norristown, and Philadelphia, PA, or Goshen, VA.
"Crown Diary 1905" (1 item). W. L. Teter's annotations in the diary are of a business and a personal nature and were made in either Goshen or Staunton, VA.
"Crown Standard Diary 1908" (1 item). W. L. Teter's annotations in the diary are of a business and a personal nature and were made in Philadelphia or Goshen, VA.